Ruby Chen

Ruby is an interaction designer and artist, exploring the world that art and technology meet. She likes making fun stuffs to create special moments and bring joy to our lives.

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A Heavy Present

A Heavy Present was my solo thesis exhibition in California Institute of the Arts. This was a self identifying process after studied abroad. In addition to cultural differences, the expectations toward a model student from my family and within Taiwanese society reinforced my contradictory situation between self-fulfillment and validation.

To show this story, I had four traditional Taiwanese windows shipped from my hometown, served as an interface between the inside and outside worlds, and also represented my parents watching over the whole room.

The main objects in the exhibition were three different rolodex installations with flipping metal frames covered by certificates, which my brother had earned during his childhood. I had the same experience growing up, and our mother would collect them all. The center one was made with a handle, which I encouraged audiences to crank it.

The two other rolodex installations were each flipped by a motor. The larger one gradually flipped slower and slower, representing the tiring process of following expectations of my family. The smaller one looked lonely and isolated in the corner, but was like my inner self trying to escape from the situation, letting the certificates fell apart and generating a notable sound.

There was also a subtle but continuing sound during the whole exhibition. The Skype calling sound from my mother somehow haunted me after I came to the US, and in the exhibition, it was silently nagging everyone from a distance. I felt like she was a presence in the room that affected everything.

In this exhibition, I subverted the education and validation system through a personal expression, such as cranking the certificates. What I expected more after this, was to create the conversation about the needs of being validated, and perhaps in a larger context, our expectation of the institution. Why do one need more validation from others after gotten those certificates from the institution? Should being validated from the institution or anyone become a way to gain confidence, and to define oneself?

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Shall We Dance

Shall We Dance was an interactive projection of a dancer’s shadow, which only continued dancing while audience imitated the dancer’s gesture. Through the process, we found more possibility of interaction and communication through our bodies, just like dancing.

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Chip-Quencer

Chip-quencer was a light-triggered rhythm sequencer, aiming at engaging audience’s body movement with the pleasure of sound. It was my first installation in CalArts. With a passion building interactive installations with sound, I inspired by rhythm sequencer and made a sequencer that trigger by hiding the light.

There are 4 rows and 4 columns with 16 photocells on every node. Different row represents different pitch. The sound sequence is played from left to right and loop as a rhythm sequencer. People can move the wood chips to different nodes and find the sound change.

The goal I pursuit is making interactive installations that audiences would play with it and discover great fun in it. This work has been shown in the Art and Technology final exhibition, appealed to lots of audiences, who also play with it and enjoy the uncertainty of the sound changes.

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MusicQ

MusicQ is a project for making our life more joyful. By redesigning the cart handle into a music keyboard, we transformed the experience of waiting in lines for cashier from tiresome annoyance into delightful anticipation.

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AIYA

AIYA was a drawing tool that records user’s drawing process and voice at the same time, which enables kids and their parents to share and store the process of developing creative storytelling and imagination.

Ruby is an interaction designer & artist who make interesting stuffs.

Ruby has a background in Computer Science at National Taiwan University, where she was amazed by the variety of possibility to create fun stuffs through programming. She fall in love with making tangible interactive design after joined a student-organized workshop on human-computer interaction, OpenHCI.

After two years at California Institute of the Arts, Ruby just received her Master of Fine Arts in Art and Technology. During the time in CalArts, Ruby enjoyed developing critical thinking, and creating interactive installations with her technical skills and creative mind.

In addition to the rich interaction in website and mobile devices, different sensory approach stands out and interests people more. That's why Ruby loves making tangible interactive design. She is also interested in environmental interaction design, creative product design and user experience design.

Ruby also loves sketching, singing and traveling. She cares about everything that makes us smile, that moves us and that inspires us, and that's also how she wants to contribute to the world.